QIA incumbent seeks more cash, jobs for Inuit

JOHN THOMPSON

Thomasie Alikatuktuk still sees plenty of work ahead for him.

The incumbent president of Qikiqtani Inuit Association has held the organization’s top job since September 2001. At that time QIA was a financial mess, and Alikatuktuk is largely been credited for restoring the organization’s financial health and getting involved in many money-earning partnerships.

So, is he done yet?

“Not yet,” says the 53-year-old from Pangnirtung, who was better known as an accomplished printmaker before entering politics. He looks over his notes, written in a mixture of Inuktitut and English, which outline his goals, if re-elected on Monday, Dec. 12.

He says he’ll continue to push for financial compensation and a public apology from RCMP over the dog slaughter issue. Since the summer of 2002, QIA has conducted interviews with elders around the Baffin region who say their sled dogs were shot by the RCMP during the 1950s to mid 1970s. By QIA’s next board meeting in February, their results should be collected.

“I think people should really get compensation,” he said.

He also wants to see Baffin beneficiaries to get their slice of the $5.1 billion package announced by the federal government at the first ministers summit last weekend in Kelowna, B.C., where Alikatuktuk was in attendance.

“I want to make sure that money goes to beneficiaries in Nunavut.”

Some of that money could go towards funding an Inuit cultural school, he said. The federal government and GN recently committed $10 million from the federal Northern Strategy funding to building that project, and Alikatuktuk says Nunavut should push hard to receive part of the $5.1 billion to fund its operation.

As more beneficiaries leave home to find jobs, the need for the education system to preserve Inuit culture increases, he said.

“We need to start teaching our children, in order to keep our culture alive.”

At work, Alikatuktuk says not enough beneficiaries are the boss. He wants more Inuit working as managers at the DEW line cleanups being conducted in a joint agreement between NTI and the department of national defence.

He also says he’d like to see more Inuit hired for the jobs. He says right now Inuit employment hovers around 65-70 percent for the projects. He’d like to see them increase to their 85 per cent target. Alikatuktuk sits on NTI’s steering committee for the DEW line cleanup efforts.

He’d also like to see the Government of Nunavut introduce a training program to ensure more Inuit hold senior-ranking government jobs.

“We need to increase training. We need to increase it in the near future,” he said.

Alikatuktuk’s list of goals keeps going, but he stops short. There’s just one more thing he wants.

“We need to see more voters,” he said. During the last election for the presidency in 2002, just one-third of eligible voters cast their ballots.